Everything Is Better Here
by Sesshomaru Fang
Summary: The world has changed, and Chase doesn't care. He just wants to be the best there ever was. He knows what he must do, and he has to teach his friends all along the way. Read and then do what you will.
1. Wishes or Action?

Everything is Better Now

**Chapter 1. Wishes or actions?**

"I don't see what's so great about Shakespeare. All he did was write plays and die."

"Shorty, stop whining," Said Chase, as they sat down for a couple of minuets before school let out, "Its only a part you have to read in English class, its not like you have to write an essay or anything."

"Shut up Chase. I just don't like Shakespeare. That's all." She said gloomily and sat down.

"Awww," chimed Lara, "come on Shortness, it's not that bad."

Shocked, Chase raised an eyebrow. "Lara, you hate Shakespeare, remember?"

"So?" she snapped, "just cuz I hate the guy doesn't mean I have to whine about it."

"You only say that now, cuz you graduated last year. Your free from his dastardly clutches."

"Exactly. And since you, Chase, hadn't moved to Angleton last year, you missed my celebration dance. So I'll do it again!" Lara cheerfully exclaimed and hopped up on the table and started doing her trademarked "I'm free from the clutches of High school" dance. "Whew," she said when she plopped back down on the bench again, "I love that dance, but now I've entered the jaws of community college."

"Give it a rest Lara." Shorty told her, "You do that every time you come back to see us."

"I just wish there was a way that none of us had to go to school anymore." Chase said wistfully, staring out the window.

"You missed the "I'm free" dance!'

"So?" asked Ian, walking up on the way to his house. "You do it every time you come he'll see it again. And if you want a relief from this world, go play a video game."

"But I don't want to _just_ play a video game, I wish one of them was real. You all know what I'm talking about. Swords, magic, monsters, the whole thing. That would be so much fun. I don't want the fake stuff, I want it real."

"Stop complaining," Ian snapped, "you act like this life is so bad,"

"Well for most of you, its not. Your always with your girlfriend, Shorty's got JD, and Josh and Ange are nearly in sepaprable! What do I have? NOTHING! That's what I have."

"Hi, guys. What's the yelling about?" asked Josh as he walked up whith his arms tight around Ange's waist.

"Told you." Chase muttered under his breath while every one else tried not to laugh. "I was just ranting about how this world sucks."

"Again?" asked Ange, "we all wish somethings were different, but if you want something to change, change it. Don't just sit on your ass and wish." She finished just as the bell rang. "Now, lets go home. Chase, you drive."

Just glad to be out of the building, Chase asked the question on everyones mind, "So are you going to Your house or Josh's house to makeout?"

"Josh's"

"Ange's," they both replied at the same time. Embarrassed they tried again.

"Ange's,"

"Josh's"

"O-k, Your going to Josh's house cuz his house is closer to the mall and I have to browse through the used book store for my English project." Yelled Chase, fed up with their antics.

"What English project?" they both asked, surprised.

"That one where we have to find an example of mid-evil writing and bring it in on Monday to read. That project." Said Chase, annoyed.

"Oh… that project." Josh said, "Can we come? We don't have the books either."

Rolling his eyes, Chase said, "Sure, fine, whatever, come on." And pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the mall with two lovebirds in the back seat.

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YAY! the first chapter of my first fanfic! Im proud. Send me reviews please. And if you feel its missing something, dont hesitate to tell me. I can write in other characters if i know them good enough.


	2. Books upon Books upon Books upon Shelves

The wind picked up as they stepped out of the car. The mall wasn't nearly as crowded as it should've been, but that was because the fair had started today, and nearly every one was there, enjoying themselves.

"Good, I hate crowds anyway." And with that, he headed into the mall with Josh and Ange following close behind.

Into the maze of hallways and corridors they plunged, with Chase leading the way confidently, and checking behind him every so often to make sure that they still followed him. When he turned the last corner, he had to stop and wait for his friends to catch up and they walked in together.

Josh and Ange continued past where Chase stopped and almost walked into the small Chinese owner who glared at them with a fury of a thousand suns. "You take shoes off!" he bellowed in a voice surprisingly loud for a man his size.

"Oops, sorry, forgot to tell you guys," Chase said as he walked up behind them newly barefooted, "the owner, Mr. Ochinu, is really traditionally oriented so you have to take off your shoes before you can go inside. He's really into that Feng Shui craze that's going around the States, and shoes obstruct your aura. I thought you guys might notice that due to the beads hanging on the door, the dim lighting, and the pebble floor." Turning to Mr. Ochinu, he bowed and said, "A thousand pardons. You will have to forgive their ignorance, they didn't know."

"Ah, of course, of course." Turning to the startled couple, he said, "Once you take shoes off, you are welcome in Bookstore Of Ancients. Make selves at home." And with that, he turned and went back behind his counter and settled into a meditation position as ethereal music began to play over the speaker system.

"Holy crap," Ange muttered to Josh, "this is one out of the way, weird assed place."

"I know," Chase said from several feet away, " That's why I know where it is, and I actually seem at home here. But if you need old books, this is the place to go. You won't find anything like these at Hastings. This is the original copy, for cheap prices too."

"Whatever," Josh told him, "now where's the ancient book section?"

"What section?" Chase asked looking up from a pile of books he had started going through.

"The section that has all the old books. The reason why we're here." Said Ange, getting aggravated.

"That's what makes this place so weird," Chase said, finished going through the pile, "there are no sections. It's only books upon books upon books upon shelves"

"What!" exclaimed Ange, "You mean we have to dig through piles of books we've never even heard of and expect the book we need to just fall into our laps?"

"Noooo." Said Chase, "this place is special, all you have to do is want it. Know what you want, and start looking. You'll find it before you even know you started looking. Have fun!" And he turned around and headed towards the back of the store as if guided.

"Well," Josh finally said, "I guess we'd better start wanting it." And with that, they both dove into piles of books that lay at their feet.

"I feel sorry for just leaving them hangin' like that, but something feels wrong here." Chase told himself as he scanned the shelves for the source of the wrongness. He almost passed it, but the feeling he got shifted to his back when he walked by it. It was only a book, but it was different from all the others. The letters on the cover were different than any of the ones Mr. Ochinu had showed him when he became his apprentice. But more than that, it glowed. When Chase reached out and took it off the shelf, the glow vanished, but the book pulsed with a slow, steady heartbeat. Slowly, Chase opened the books cover and leafed through the pages. There were the same letters as on the cover, but there were latter entries, and those were written in a language he knew, thanks to Mr. Ochinu. It was called the Language of the Ancients, but before he could even read the first few words, a blazing white light began to spill from the letters.

"ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!" he cried before he fell unconscious. As he lay there unaware of everything, the world around him began to change…

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ooh, creepy. What's happening to the world? I haven't thought that up yet, so you'll just have to wait and see. Review please.


	3. What are you wearing?

"Uuugh," Chase moaned as he rolled over onto something that didn't feel like the floor he fell on. It felt like grass. "What the…?" he said as he sat up.

"Oh good, he woke up." A familiar voice said from somewhere nearby.

"Huh?" Chase yelped as he jumped up from the ground, with a sword that wasn't there before in his hand.

"Calm down hun." Said a second voice.

"Hun?" Chase thought. "Not that many people call me that." After a slight pause, he called out, "Lara, is that you?"

"Damn. How did you know it was me?" she asked as she stood up out of the grass a couple of feet away. The grass was so tall you could barely see her eyes.

With a grin, Chase told her, "You're the only person in the world that calls me hun."

"Damn, now I have to do my "too bad you guessed who I was" dance. But anyway, you got me, but can you guess who's with me?" she asked slyly.

"Are they standing up?" Chase asked her.

"Yeah, they're standing." She replied.

"Shorty" He said immediately.

"Damn it Chase, that's mean. " Shorty said, still invisible in the tall grass

"Mean, but still true." Chase said to the Shortness. "The grass is pretty damn tall if you didn't notice."

Laughing, Lara told him, "stop fighting and come here, we have something to show you."

"Fine," he said back, "stay there." And began the tedious work of making it through about twenty feet of grass.

A couple minuets later, he hacked his way to the small clearing where Lara and Shorty had been. Shorty was jumping up and down as high as she could on a medium sized rock trying to see something.

"What are you doing?" Chase said as she jumped surprised, and fell off the rock, and her ankle twisted to an odd angle.

"Aaaaarrrrggghhhhh!" she screamed as Chase ran to her, surprisingly, she was barefooted.

"Hold still so I can see what I'm doing." He told her, as his hand started to glow a light blue around the edges, and around her ankle.

"Hey, that feels good." She told him. "What are you doing?" and gasped when she saw his hand and his face drenched in sweat.

When his hand and her ankle both stopped glowing, Chase gave a sigh and slumped up against the rock behind him. "I don't know what I did, but I had to concentrate really hard for it. Now then, what were you doing on that rock?"

"Nothing." She said hurriedly

"You look pretty tired for doing nothing," he told her

" She was trying to see over the grass, but I'm not so sure it worked out since she's on the ground." Lara said as she stepped out of the grass.

"Shhhhh. He doesn't need to know that." Shorty snapped.

"It's not exactly unobvious you know." Chase said.

"Silence you." She told him.

"You can't do it like I can Shortness, it just doesn't sound the same. And anyway, what did you have to show me?" Chase wanted to know.

"Well, you should know, you've been staring at Shorty for a couple of minuets now. When we came here, our clothes transformed, and we all got something new. I got this," Lara told him and held up a wooden rod about 4 ½ feet long, with a multicolored jewel in the top.

"Yeah, I got this awesome dagger." Shorty told him, and held up a shiny new dagger.

"And I got a sword." He said.

Taking a look at their clothes, he saw immediately what happened. Lara now wore a long blue robe; a pair of leather boots, there was a pointy straw hat on her head, and gauntlets that came up to her elbow. Shorty had a Green bandana wrapped around her head, a green, loose fitting shirt with many hidden pockets, and loose pants with even more pockets than the shirt. Her pants were held at the waist by a belt with a sheath on it for her dagger. Now that he thought about it, his clothes had to have changed, but they didn't seem any different on the outside. After looking very closely, he found that his favorite shirt now had feather light chain mail stitched into it, and then covered with another thin layer of cloth. His pants had been filled out with another layer of padding and leather, but still looked the same on the outside. The pockets were still the same, and he now had a sheath on his back for a sword.

"Cool" was all he had to say.

"Yeah," Lara said, "it is pretty sweet."

"Now that we've established the obvious, does anyone know where we are?" Shorty asked.

"I might have an idea," Chase said, "but I won't be sure until I see something else. When he finished his sentence, he trailed off and started to stare in to the distance.

After a little while, Lara remembered, "Oh, you dropped this. I found it when you found Shorty on the rock. I went to where you were cuz you told me to stay put." She said and reached into her overly large sleeves. After about a minuet of digging around in there, she said, "Ha! Found it! You wouldn't believe how many pockets are in here or how big they are." She finished talking, and pulled out the book from the bookstore.

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BUM BUM BUM! The book! What does that mean? You'll find out later. Read and review please.


	4. Welcome to Ivalice

"That book…" Chase started to say before he trailed off.

"You had it in the bookstore" Shorty finished for him.

"How did you know that? Josh and Ange were the only ones with me. I wonder what happened to them." Chase said.

"Don't know, don't care," Lara said, "and as to the fact of how we knew, were got bored as soon as you left, and we stalked you."

"Great, I have two lovely women stalkers. What fun." Chase said more to himself than the other two.

"But what about the book? What is it?" Lara wanted to know.

"I'm not sure, but if we are where I think we are, I might know what it is." Chase told them.

"Enough of this "might know" crap! Tell us what you know, or this knife I found will be in your foot." Shorty said threateningly.

"Trust me, you wouldn't get close enough for it." Chase said coldly, his freshly drawn sword in his hand.

"Damn that was fast. I didn't even see you pull it out." Lara told him.

"I got bored and practiced back home. You won't believe how different this feels than my staff." Chase told her. Turning to Shorty, he said, "When I'm sure I know something you'll be the first to know. Now put up your knife. It's time to start looking."

"Looking for what?" Shorty wanted to know.

"I'll tell you when I find out. Can you walk?" he asked her.

"Probably, but I'm not sure. Lets find out." And slowly, she stood up. "Damn. It hasn't felt this good in years."

"Well, that's a good thing. We might be able to see something like a town or a house or something of the sort from one of those hills over that way." Lara pointed out, but Chase wasn't paying attention.

"Why bother?" He asked. "There's a road about thirty feet that way," he said and pointed in the opposite direction Lara had.

"And how do you know that?" Shorty asked.

"I can see it. It's a benefit of being taller than the grass." He said jokingly.

"Shut up Chase." She said while Lara laughed. "You too." She snapped.

"Hey," Lara said, "that hurt my feelings. Now I have to do my "Shorty's mad at me and I didn't do anything wrong" dance. All I did was laugh at your shortness.

With a glare, Shorty turned and stalked off into the grass. "Quick! After her! If we lose sight of her, we'll never find her again!" Chase said to Lara and they both ran after her.

When they caught up with her, they had found the road. "Sooooo…" Chase said, "Which way we gonna go?"

"Lets go, um…uh…hmmmm. LEFT!" she shouted and turned right.

"Lara," Chase whispered, "Left is the other way."

"I knew that!" She shouted and spun around. "I was just testing you. You passed!" She finished and gave a false laugh.

"Riiiiiiight." Chase said and started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" someone asked from behind them.

"AAAAHHHH!" they all yelped as Chase's sword whipped out of its sheath into his hand. Before he could say anything, BOOOOOOOM! A bolt of lightning struck the ground right in front of whoever scared them. Chase and Shorty looked at Lara, and saw she was engulfed in a fading yellow aura that sparked and sizzled like static.

"What was that?" Shorty and Lara both asked Chase.

"That would be a scared Josh, Ange, and Ian, all in strange clothes, with weapons looking at the crater that that lightning just left." He told them

"What?" Shorty said and glanced in the direction the bolt had hit. "Oh, hello."

"Hi" Ange told her, her voice shaking.

"But what was the lightning!" Shorty asked again.

"That is what is called a thunder spell that Lara accidentally let loose when Josh came up and scared us half to death." Chase told them matter-of-factly.

'Which means….?" Ian wanted to know

"It means we ain't in Kansas no more Toto. I would like to welcome you all to Ivalice. A world of monsters, magic, swords, clans, laws, judges, and anything your heart could possibly want. Everything I've ever wished for just came true. We're in a land of infinite possibilities." Chase told the stunned group dreamily.

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Finally! they know where they are. Chase has found what he wanted, but what will he do next?Ever wonder where Lara comes up with those dances? Next chapter shuld be up by sunday! Keep R+R


	5. Say Wha?

"Whoa," Ian said, "you mean to tell me that somehow, we went from our own world, which I was perfectly happy in, into some land from your favorite videogame? That's impossible. And how do you know we are in the same videogame your thinking of?"

'That road sign over there behind you. And if the other world were perfect for you, you wouldn't be standing here right now." Chase said, and pointed to a sign behind the entire group that read,

**EAST- CYRIL 25 MILES**

**WEST- SPROHM 14 MILES**

**NORTHWEST- BAGUBA PORT 29 MILES**

**NORTHEAST- MUSCADET 31 MILES**

"Oh…. Ok, but that's still kinda hard to believe." Josh spoke up. He was wearing archer's wrist guards, a loose brown shirt, and light pants. He had a quiver full of arrows slung over one shoulder, and a longbow in his hands.

"Well, he's the only one with some sort of idea of what to do and where we are, so I say go with it." Ange told the group. She had on a Robe similar to the one Lara had on, but hers was white with red hems, and she had a curved staff in her hands.

"Fine, fine, fine," Ian said hurriedly, "but how did we get here?" He was clad in a heavy suit of plate mail, which went from top to bottom, and a helmet that went down the bridge of his nose, and a long spear in his hand.

"My guess is this." Chase said and held up the book. "I opened it, passed out, and woke up here. Lara said she found it, where she found me"

"Let me get this straight, " Shorty said, "you opened an old crusty book, and you changed the world? That sounds cool."

"Not just me, but all of us. You're all here with me, unharmed, and undamaged. That means you had to want it just as much as I did. There's something here for all of you, we just have to find it." Chase said.

"So we have a magic book, new and improved clothes, pointy weapons, magic spells, and a foreign land that only you've heard of, all because you wanted it to happen?" Lara asked skeptically.

"Because WE wanted it to happen, and yes." Chase told them all.

"So tell me something Chase," Ange wanted to know, "What the hell are we?"

"Well, job wise, you look like a white mage, Josh appears to be an archer, Ian's a dragoon, Lara seems to be a black mage, Shorty's a thief, and I guess that leaves me with soldier. Chase told the group.

"Ahhh, now what does it all mean?" Ange asked.

"What I'm guessing, is it's what are souls are." Chase began, "You, Ange, are classified as a mage. That means, you have a strongermind than those of us who aren't mages. Since you're a white mage, you have a powerful soul, and a great distaste for swords right now. It'll be your job to heel any wounds we get in a battle. You're squeamish, so you'll want it done fast. That's a good thing. Am I right, or am I right?"

"That's all true, but I'm not sure how you knew all of that. How DID you know all of that?" She said.

"I'll explain later, but for now, who else wants a body and soul examination?" Chase asked the group.

'Oh! Oh! I do! I do!" Lara exclaimed, jumping up and down.

"You're the same as Ange, almost. You're a mage, but you're a black mage. This means your body is just as strong as ours, maybe even stronger, but your will is stronger than your body, and your emotions are more destructive than most peoples are. You'll have to learn to become more separate from your emotions so you don't blow us all to hell and back."

"Huh?" Lara asked, confused.

"Stay calm, stupid." Josh said.

"Oh hell no. You did not just call me stupid you little dumbshit." Lara raged as the air around her began to heat up and glow red with a crackling sound like a campfire.

"Lara!" Chase yelled. "Calm down or you'll burn him to a crisp."

"Huh?" She asked, "I didn't do anything though."

"You don't have to. Since you're a black mage, you have control over three basic elements, Fire, lightning and Ice. Those are all controlled by your feelings and when you feel a strong emotion, it'll set lose a mage spell on whomever you felt it towards." Chase explained.

"Oh, well, how can I do all of this?" She asked.

"You know those little weapons we all ended up with? Well, you see, those each have a special ability that you can do with those weapons. Eventually, none of us will need to have the weapons on hand to do what they allow us to do, but for now, we still do." Chase continued explaining.

"So what supernatural power do I get from this little piece of pointy metal?" Shorty wanted to know.

"Well, since that's only a basic weapon, you can steal cash. It's easier for you now." He said.

"Ah, ok. That sounds fun" She replied

"Question oh all-knowing teacher." Ian said

"Answer oh little-knowing child." Chase replied

"How the hell do you know any of this?" Ian asked.

"Because I am God." Chase said flatly. "No, not really, but I just wanted to see your reaction. It was funny. But seriously, The book made this world based on what I wanted, with whatever you guys wanted as well, so, if I'm the one whose wishes brought this world into existence, what I know about the game is true, and that's what I know about it. Your faces were priceless. I just wish I had a camera." And he started to laugh.

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Finally, no more explanations for a while. They take up too much time. And this chapter took forever to type because my parents never left me alone. It was very frustrating


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